Page 106 - University of Pretoria RESEARCH REVIEW 2018

The Javett-UP Art Centre – home of the art of Africa
Vasu Reddy, Dean: Humanities
The Javett-UP Art Centre is one of the largest philanthropic ventures in South Africa aimed at promoting the arts and cultural heritage in the region.
Set to be launched in September 2019, the Javett-UP complex is already a distinctive feature in the capital city’s landscape. The galleries and meeting spaces will be a place for the exchange of ideas – for academics and students, the public, and visiting academics and artists-in-residence from Africa and beyond. Straddling academic and public spheres of practice, the deliberate intention is to make the art of Africa accessible, relevant and engaging.
The impressive complex is located on UP’s south campus, with a bridge gallery connecting the building to the main campus. There are nine exhibition spaces that will house local and international exhibitions, and permanent collections. The permanent collections will be the Javett Foundation’s collection of 20th century South African art, and the Mapungubwe Gold, an archaeological collection with historical and cultural significance. A student gallery and piazza link the complex to the Departments of Architecture and Visual Arts.
Since its inception, the idea has always been of Javett-UP as a collaborative, multidisciplinary space that makes possible engagement with the ideas, methodologies and concerns of the art of Africa, and as a platform and catalyst for research and education.
Javett-UP is also the site for the first Master’s degree programme in Tangible Heritage Conservation in South Africa. The programme, developed with funding from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, and launched in 2018, is set to play a significant role in the conservation of the art of Africa. Drawing on the humanities and the sciences, it is intended to develop new generations of highly skilled heritage conservators, and to strengthen the idea and meaning of science that is best achieved through its societal, creative and humanistic contexts.
Research themes such as historical studies and tourism, capital cities, the human economy, inequalities, decolonisation, and demography are already active or have been identified as key focus areas.
Also in 2018, students Sandisile Gqweta and Olu Yakhe were named the winners of the first annual Javett Music Awards, and Professor Lenora Helm Hammonds from North Carolina Central University (US), as recipient of the first artist-in-residence award.
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